Franklin Simon

Franklin Simon (February 7, 1865 – October 4, 1934), was the owner of Franklin Simon & Co., a department store in Manhattan, New York City. The store was founded in February 1902, when Simon partnered with Herman A. Flurscheim.[1]

Franklin Simon
Born(1865-02-07)February 7, 1865
New York City, NY
DiedOctober 4, 1934(1934-10-04) (aged 69)
Purchase, NY
Known forFranklin Simon & Co.
Partner(s)Herman A. Flurscheim
AwardsLegion of Honor
Signature

Early life

Born on New York City's Lower East Side in 1865 to Henri and Helene Simon, Franklin had three brothers and three sisters. Simon's father, Henri, was a cigar-maker and wood carver. His mother, Helene, was a seamstress.[2] After his father's untimely death in 1878, Simon found work at a cash-boy at Stern Brothers, a dry goods store located at 32–36 West 23rd Street. One of the store's principals, Louis Stern, befriended young Simon, teaching him the "ropes" of dry goods.[3]

By age 21, Simon was earning $5000 per year, a considerable sum at that time.[4] In 1892, Simon married Frances Carroll, the daughter of a New York City Sheriff. The couple had four children: Franklin Simon Jr., who died July 3, 1902, Arthur J. Simon (1892–1968); Helene Simon (1895–?); and George D. Simon (1898–1944).

As his responsibilities at Stern Brothers increased, Simon was sent overseas to Paris as a buyer for the firm.[5] It was during one of these business trips that Simon became acquainted with Herman A. Flurscheim, one of Stern Brothers' principal suppliers in France.[6] The two became friends and soon made plans to go into business together, importing French fashions into the United States.[7]

Founding Franklin Simon & Co.

By 1902 Simon had saved approximately $100,000.[8] In a daring move, Simon and Flurscheim purchased the home of Mrs. Orme Wilson, sister of John Jacob Astor IV, at 414 Fifth Avenue as the site of their new venture, Franklin Simon & Co., a store of "individual shoppes."[9] At that time, Fifth Avenue was primarily a residential street, and Simon's merchant contemporaries derided his choice of location, speculating that the business would be a total failure.[10]

Franklin Simon & Co. opened its doors for business in February, 1902.[11] The venture lost $40,000 during its first year of operation and $28,000 during its second.[12] However, by 1904 Fifth Avenue was coming into its own as a fashion center and the store turned a $16,000 profit.[13] From that point forward, Franklin Simon & Co. remained one of the preeminent Fifth Avenue fashion outlets until its dissolution in the 1970s.

Fifth Avenue Success and Retail Innovations

Perhaps the first person to view Fifth Avenue as a major retail and fashion center, Simon initiated "Buyers Week" and "Market Week," thus revolutionizing how manufacturers and retailers presented and sold new fashions and simultaneously generating millions of dollars in business for the surrounding neighborhood. By 1922, Simon was known amongst his contemporaries as a "merchant prince," and was one of the leading figures in setting the fashion trends of the day.[14]

Franklin Simon & Co., Circa 1915.

Simon's approach to advertising was, in many ways, revolutionary. He employed visionary artists such as Norman Bel Geddes and Donald Deskey. Their talent helped change the future of department store display windows, creating futuristic designs that stopped traffic on Fifth Avenue.[15] Simon was also the first Fifth Avenue merchant to offer on-site parking for his customers, a plan he devised himself.[16]

To combat slumping sales, Simon originated the concept of "blue light" sales, by instructing his in-store salespeople to mark down items with blue pencils while customers were looking on.[17] Simon was also the first merchant to suggest the use of outlet stores as a way to sell out of season merchandise.[18] This was the first known use of such a sales tactic.

To dissuade piracy and trademark infringement, Simon was ferocious in protecting his brand and was not afraid to use the courts to enforce his legal rights.[19]

The success of Simon's original Fifth Avenue establishment was followed by more openings across the country. In 1932, Simon opened his first expansion in Greenwich, Connecticut.[20] Later expansions followed in Manhasset, Long Island – on the "Miracle Mile," Palm Beach, Florida, and several other locations.[21] The site of the Manhasset store would later be developed into Americana Manhasset.

In the 1930s, Franklin Simon & Co. would be the first retail store on Fifth Avenue to remain open until nine o'clock in the evening, a remarkable "experiment" that ultimately proved a success and left a lasting impact on the retail industry in the United States.[22]

Personal life

Mr. Simon was a noted philanthropist. He was a regular contributor to The New York Times' One Hundred Neediest Cases. After the Titanic disaster in 1912, Mr. Simon provided clothes and financial support for two French orphans rescued from a lifeboat. He published the little girls' picture in major newspapers with the hope of finding their family. He insured they had whatever they needed at no cost.[23]

Mr. Simon also received France's highest honor, "The Legion D'Honneur." Mr. Simon was named as a Chevalier of the Legion for "having done more than any other person to put U. S. women into French clothes."[24]

Civic minded, Mr. Simon was elected chairman of the centennial committee to save Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home; bound for demolition if not for Mr. Simon's efforts.[25] He was also the director of the Hospital for Joint Diseases and a member of the board of governors of the Stuyvesant Square Hospital. Simon was a member of the Empire State Luncheon Club, Westchester Country Club, Quaker Ridge Golf Club, Uptown Club and the National Democratic Club.[26] Simon was also on the Board, and later served as Vice President of the Fifth Avenue Association, an influential group of public officials and Fifth Avenue merchants that included Ezra Fitch, Robert Adamson, Lucius M. Boomer, Eliot Cross, and other luminaries of the era.[27]

Death
Franklin Simon's Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, in the Bronx.

Franklin Simon died in his country home at Purchase, New York on October 4, 1934 from kidney failure.[28]

After his death, several of the great merchants of New York paid tribute to Mr. Simon, including Percy Straus, President of Macy's, and Bernard Gimbel, President of Gimbel Brothers. Isaac Lieberman, President of Arnold, Constable & Co. remarked that "Mr. Franklin Simon was one of the pioneer merchants of Fifth Avenue and has probably done more to develop Fifth Avenue as a fashion centre than any other single person."[29] The New York Times, in an editorial celebrating Simon's achievements wrote "What need of imposing a 'code' upon a man like him? He was his own code – always one of honor and humanity."[30]

Simon's funeral was a grand affair, with Governor Herbert Lehman sending his condolences and arranging a funeral cortege along the Hutchinson River Parkway.[31]

At the time of his death, Simon left a gross estate of approximately $2,394,751 to his wife.[32] Calculated for inflation, Simon's personal estate, excluding Franklin Simon & Co., was worth approximately $42 million in 2013 dollars. After Simon's death, his widow sold a controlling interest in Franklin Simon and Co. to the Atlas Corporation in September, 1936.[33]

Mr. Simon is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, in the Bronx.

References
  1. "H.A. Flurscheim Dies". The New York Times. August 20, 1914. Pioneer Dry Goods Merchant and Art Collector Was 63 Years Old. Flurscheim wed Miss Bella Goldsmith, of this city, in 1876. She died four years ago leaving five children who now survive him. They are Mrs. Ansel Strauss, Mrs. Otto Loeb, Mrs. Harry Cowen and Bernard and Harry Flurscheim.
  2. Census of 1870.
  3. "Franklin Simon, long ill, Dies at 69." The New York Times. October 5, 1934. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  4. id.
  5. id.
  6. id.
  7. id.
  8. id.
  9. id.
  10. id.
  11. id.
  12. id.
  13. id.
  14. The Clothier and Furnisher Vol. 101, Oct. 1922. Pg. 50.
  15. "Art: Along the Avenue." TIME Magazine. April 21, 1941. "But the window that tied up traffic last week was at Franklin Simon's." Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  16. "Store Parks Cars For Its Customers." The New York Times. December 14, 1924. "The parking troubles of customers of Franklin Simon & Co, Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street, will be ended tomorrow under a plan devised by Franklin Simon, head of the department store. At a cost of $50,000, the store will provide parking space in a private garage for all of their customers using automobiles." Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  17. The Clothier and Furnisher, Vol. 101, pg. 61. December, 1922. "Franklin Simon, New York, last year supplied its salesman with blue pencils, with instructions to mark down the special merchandise while customers were looking on."
  18. "New York Fashion; Legends of NYC. Best & Co., Peck & Peck, Franklin Simon." Jeffrey Felner. The Examiner. December 7, 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  19. See generally Franklin Simon & Co. v. Bramley Blouses, 170 Misc. 844, 845 (Sup. Ct. NY Cnty., Jan. 27, 1939)("Many millions of millions of dollars have been spent by [Franklin Simon & Co.] for advertising in New York newspapers[.] ... As a result of conscientious effort and extensive advertising of a period of thirty-five years, [Franklin SImon & Co.] has acquired and enjoys an enviable and unique reputation as one of the preeminently fine retail business establishments of the United States."
  20. "Business: Fifth Avenue to Greenwich." TIME Magazine. April 4, 1932. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  21. "Franklin Simon Starts Manhasset Branch With Exhibit of famous Crown of Andes." The New York Times. October 12, 1956. Retrieved 20 July, 2013.
  22. "Fifth Ave. Stores Weigh Late Close." The New York Times. September 17, 1937. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  23. "Babies Found in One of the Titanic's Lifeboats." The New York Times. April 21, 1912. "[T]he children were outfitted to-day without charge by Franklin Simon & Co. of 414 Fifth Avenue. No request was made to them to do it, but as soon as they heard that the children were in the store they offered us whatever they needed."
  24. TIME Magazine. Business: Fifth Avenue to Greenwich. April 4, 1932. "France made Franklin Simon a chevalier of the Legion of Honor for having done more than any other person to put U. S. women into French clothes."
  25. "Open Drive To Buy Jefferson's Home." The New York Times. May 11, 1925. "The Jefferson Centennial Committee, headed by Franklin Simon ... will begin the work of raising funds to purchase the ancestral home of Thomas Jefferson, at Monticello, Va., which they plan to convert into a national shrine." Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  26. "Franklin Simon, long ill, dies at 69." Supra.
  27. "Fifth Avenue Old and New," Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co. New York City, 1924. A publication of the Fifth Avenue Association. Available at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6201730_000/ldpd_6201730_000.pdf
  28. "Milestones, Oct. 15, 1934." TIME Magazine. October 15, 1934. "Died. Franklin Simon, 69, Founder of Franklin Simon & Co. big Manhattan department store; of uremic poisoning; in Purchase, NY." Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  29. Franklin Simon, long ill, dies at 69. The New York Times. October 5, 1934.
  30. "Franklin Simon." The New York Times. October 5, 1934. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  31. "Last Tribute Paid to Franklin Simon." The New York Times. October 7, 1934. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  32. "$1,890,240 In Estate Of Franklin Simon." The New York Times. January 29, 1938. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  33. "Atlas Corp. Buys Franklin Simon." The New York Times. October 1, 1936. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
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